Hot-button issue

Gun-carry permits set record in ’12

The gun-control debate

President Barack Obama has called for toughening America’s gun laws to confront mass shootings and everyday gun violence, betting that public opinion has shifted enough to support the broadest push for gun control in a generation.

Your Right to Know

A record number of concealed-carry permits, 76,810, were issued or renewed in Ohio last year,
the most since the state began issuing permits in 2004.

Attorney General Mike DeWine, who reports annually on licenses to carry concealed weapons,
showed the number of new permits issued, 64,650, was 30 percent higher than in 2011. There were
also 12,160 renewals last year.

DeWine included a statement with the report noting he is a supporter of the Second Amendment and
is “pleased to see that more Ohioans than ever before are exercising their rights under Ohio’s
concealed-carry law.”

The 2012 numbers brought the nine-year total of permits issued in Ohio to 344,415. Not all of
those permits, however, are active; some expired or have been revoked.

The surge of permits occurred during a year when the nation experienced more than a dozen major
shooting deaths, most recently the massacre at Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 12 when a gunman killed 26
people at an elementary school, including 20 children. One year ago yesterday, three students were
killed at Chardon High School in northeastern Ohio.

Franklin County issued 4,712 new permits and renewed 732 others last year, DeWine’s report
showed. That was the most of any county in the state, and twice as many as in Cuyahoga County, the
most populous in Ohio. While other counties, including Montgomery, had the most permits issued in
the earlier years, Franklin County emerged more recently as the concealed-carry capital.

During the year, 1,030 licenses were suspended because permit-holders were charged with various
offenses. There were 741 licenses revoked, many by people who moved out of state or decided not to
renew their permits. DeWine reported that 889 people who applied for permits were denied because
they did not meet qualifications.

The attorney general’s report is compiled from license statistics reported by county sheriffs to
the Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission.